Brothers at Arms Read Free Book Online

thanks for what he saw when he looked at the boy. Then he saw the bedraggled little figure beside him, unlike any girl he had seen before. She looked like a smudgy-eyed black cat with a thumb stuffed in her mouth and was almost asleep. He supposed he should make allowances because she had travelled from Ireland. No doubt, she would look less dishevelled when she had a bath and changed her clothes.
    He glanced across the room to where his sister, Caroline, sat straight-backed on the chaise longue, with his two cousins next to her. His brother lounged by the fireplace, looking decidedly overdressed for country life in his pale lemon pantaloons and white-topped Hessian boots.
    “Good God – more stray brats,” Matthew Norbery brayed. “Where the devil did he find this lot?”
    Joshua cringed at his brother’s ignorant behaviour. To show off in front of the family was bad, but when they had visitors was worse.
    Determined not to embarrass his father, he smiled and grasped Charlie’s hand. “I’m pleased to see you,” he said.
    “Sophie, come and meet Joshua,” the boy said, with a soft lilt in his voice. “And remember to wipe your hands first.”
    The little girl gave a weary sigh as she dragged the thumb from her mouth, rubbed her fist across her nose and wiped it against her pelisse before extending a grubby little paw in his direction.
    Joshua knew it would be a sticky handshake, but he could not refuse. Charlie was everything he hoped, but he supposed he could not expect too much of a girl.
    “How old are you?” he asked, for something to say.
    “I’ll be eleven years old at Christmas,” Charlie said, “and Sophie is eight, going on nine. Uncle Tom tells me that I’m older than you.”
    Like everyone else, but only by a few months.
    While the grown-ups continued to talk in the background, Charlie peered at his face and said in an awestruck voice, “Wow, what a shiner. How did you get that, Josh?”
    Out of habit, Joshua pushed back his hair from his forehead. Before he could cover the bruise, his brother barged in and boasted, “I gave him a thrashing.”
    Charlie turned around and seemed to notice Matthew Norbery for the first time. “What’d you be doing that for?” he asked, the Irish lilt sounding decidedly pronounced.
    “I don’t need a reason to kick him into shape. He’ll never amount to anything.” The dandified fop dismissed them with a supercilious sniff.
    “You’d better not lay a finger on him whilst I’m here,” Charlie growled. “I’ll give you a dose of home brewed.”
    Matthew Norbery stepped back and raised his ornate gold quizzing glass.
    “By Jove,” he tittered. “We have a pugilist in our midst – how frightfully bourgeois.”
    Joshua could not believe a stranger would speak in his defence.
    “Matthew,” their father warned. “Kindly behave yourself.”
    When they were called into the salon, Joshua moved forward to lead the way, and felt a cuff across the back of his head.
    “Get in line, brat. I go before you, because I’m the heir to Linmore,” Matthew Norbery said and minced ahead of them.
    Charlie waved his hands around to mimic the posturing.
    “Don’t worry, Josh,” he said, “we’ll get his measure. Come on, Sophie, you don’t want to miss your tea, do you?”
    Joshua waited because Charlie did, and took the expectant little hand in his. He looked at Sophie, and she almost grinned. At least, he thought it was a smile. It was the nearest thing to a grimace he could imagine.
    “Oh, she likes you, Josh,” said Charlie. “I’m so glad.”
    Joshua managed to contain his enthusiasm as best he could. He must be thankful for small things… he supposed.

C HAPTER 4
    “I’m sorry if it offends you, Josh, but I don’t like your brother.”
    Joshua was showing Charlie the bedroom next door to his. Sophie would sleep on the opposite side of the nursery corridor, near the other girls. For now, she was sitting on the floor openly listening to their